Temple shooting dredges up memories of long history of bias crimes against Sikhs

By the CNN Wire Staff

Updated 1734 GMT (0134 HKT) August 6, 2012

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Human Rights Organization hold placards and candles during a vigil in Amritsar, India, on Tuesday, August 7, as they pay tribute to Sikh devotees killed in the U.S. The tragedy of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting has reverberated worldwide.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Sikhs gather at Washington's Lafayette Park, across from the White House, for a Night of Remembrance of the Wisconsin Gurdwara Shootings on Wednesday, August 8. The man on the left is holding a poster of Oak Creek Police Officer Lt. Brian Murphy, who was shot multiple times as he pursued the gunman.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Photos of the victims are displayed during a candlelight vigil Wednesday in New York's Union Square. Six people were killed in the shooting Sunday, August 5, near Milwaukee.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A woman from the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin mourns during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, August 7, at the Oak Creek Community Center in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Mourners and supporters of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin attend the vigil at the Oak Creek Community Center on Tuesday night.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Mourners continue to hold vigils such as the one Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center after the carnage left the local Sikh community reeling.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Peggy Renner-Howell bows her head after laying flowers Tuesday at a makeshift memorial near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A man visits the makeshift memorial near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of Wisconsin's Sikh community conduct a candlelight vigil on Monday, August 6, for the six people killed in suburban Milwaukee.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, along with members of the Sikh community, attends Monday's vigil at the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin for the victims of the shooting at the Sikh temple.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin on Monday, August 6. The mourners pray for their neighbors killed in the attack on a Sikh temple.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of the Miwaukee-area Sikh community gather to learn information about the shooting spree of Wade Michael Page, 40, on Monday, August 6 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A member of the Miwaukee-area Sikh community weeps as he listens to information about the shooting spree.

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – People console each other on Monday at the command center near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – SWAT officers surround a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a gunman whom authorities identified as Wade Michael Page, 40, stormed the building and opened fire on August 5. The incident left six people and the gunman dead.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – SWAT officers gather in front of the temple Sunday. The attack occurred about 10:30 a.m., when temple members were reading scriptures and cooking food.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – People wait for information in front of the temple as law enforcement officers secure the area.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Police work outside the entrance to the temple, near Milwaukee.

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As the incidents waned, the community had hoped the worst was behind them -- until Sunday, when a man shot and killed at least six people at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, wounded a police officer and was himself killed by another officer's bullets.

Wade Michael Page, 40, an Army veteran, was the gunman and was killed by an officer at the scene, police said Monday.

Witnesses said the gunman had a 9/11 tattoo on one arm.

Police have received information that the suspect "may have been involved in" the white supremacist movement, but that has not been confirmed, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said.

While the shooter's motives are not yet known, what is clear is that the incident has dredged up the sense of shock and sadness Sikhs felt 11 years ago.

Rajwant Singh, from the Maryland-Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said Sikhs growing up in the United States should not feel as though they don't belong.

"Everybody should feel at home," he said Sunday. "This nation belongs to everyone."

But little seems to have changed.

The United States is home to about 700,000 Sikhs, nearly all of Indian origin. The men are easily identifiable by their beards and turbans, a tradition that's lasted for 500 years.

But the attire and appearance have also meant that they are often mistaken for Muslims, and are targets of anti-Islam attacks.

"Our appearance looks like Osama bin Laden and those of Afghanistan," Suminder Sodhi, a friend of the Arizona victim, said at the time of the first attack. "But we are different people from Muslim people. We have different beliefs, a different religion."

Because many of the incidents go unreported and because the FBI doesn't specifically list them -- instead lumping them as "anti-Islamic" crimes -- exact numbers are hard to come by.

Earlier this year, New York Rep. Joe Crowley sent a letter to the Justice Department to begin tracking crimes against Sikhs. He asked that the FBI update its Hate Crime Incident Report Form (1-699), which does not have a designation for crimes against Sikhs as it does for some other groups.

"The more information our law enforcement agencies have on violence against Sikh-Americans, the more they can do to help prevent these crimes and bring those who commit them to justice," Crowley said.

Here are some instances from the long list of attacks that Sikhs have faced since 9/11:

-- September 15, 2001: Roque guns down Sodhi outside a Mesa gas station. Roque drives up to the station, fires five times and flees. He goes on to shoot at a Lebanese-American gas station clerk and fire into the home of an Afghan-American family later the same day. He is serving a life sentence.

-- December 2001: Two men beat store owner Surinder Singh 20 times with metal poles in Los Angeles while they utter, "We'll kill bin Laden today."

-- March 2004: Vandals scrawl the words, "It's not your country" in blue spray paint on the wall of the Gurdwara Sahib temple in Fresno, California. The temple was also vandalized a year earlier.

-- July 2004: Rajinder Singh Khalsa is beaten unconscious by six men in New York City, after they taunt him and his friend about their turban. The beating leaves Khalsa with multiple fractures.

-- August 2006: Iqbal Singh is stabbed in the neck with a steak knife in San Jose, California, while he is standing in the carport of his house. The attacker later tells police he wanted to "kill a Taliban."

-- October 2008: Ajit Singh Chima is punched and kicked in the head while out on his daily walk in Carteret, New Jersey. The attacker does not take anything from Chima.

-- January 2009: Jasmir Singh is attacked outside a New York grocery store, with men shouting racial slurs. Two years later, his father is attacked.

-- November 2010: Two passengers beat Harbhajan Singh, a Sikh cabdriver, in Sacramento, California, with one of them calling him "Osama bin Laden."

-- March 2011: Gurmej Singh Atwal and Surinder Singh are gunned down in Elk Grove, California, while out on their afternoon walk. They are not robbed and had no enemies, family members say.

-- February 2012: A Sikh temple under construction in Sterling Heights, Michigan, is defaced, with graffiti on the wall depicting a gun and a Christian cross. Someone also scrawls "Mohmed," perhaps in reference to the Muslim prophet Mohammed.